1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the drinking water systems for animals and more particularly to a system for selectively providing clean fresh water to an animal's drinking bowl for the animal to drink and selectively causing the discharge of old water and any accumulated debris therein from the drinking bowl either through manual control or automatically in accordance with a predetermined schedule.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have heretofore been may devices proposed for automatically providing water and/or solid food into a bowl or dish for consumption by animals such as pet dogs, cats or the like. Many of such devices provided the water and/or solid food on a timed bases. However, often debris from the animals would accumulate in the water contained in the water or feed bowl and such debris also often would adhere to the surface of the feed bowl. Attempts suggested by the prior art devices for periodically removing the water and debris and replenishing the water with clean fresh water have not proven to be completely satisfactory. It has been found that debris floating on top of the water or dispersed throughout the water as well as resting on the bottom of the feed bowl and/or adhering to the walls of the feed bowl were not always completely removed during periodic automatic cleaning and replenishing cycles. Some of the prior art automatic water replenishing devices relied upon the normal movement of the water during the discharge of the water from the bowl. However, such normal movement, for example by the natural vortex by the Coriolis effect of the earth's rotation was not strong enough to cause a more complete removal of all debris in the water. That is, the comparatively weak Coriolis vortex did not provide a sufficiently strong vortex to remove all the debris and, additionally, such Coriolis vortex only lasted as long as the water was draining. No provisions had been provided for introducing water into the feed dish simultaneously with the water being drained out and inducing a forced vortex, much stronger than the weak Coriolis vortex, and continuing the simultaneous draining of the vortex swirling water for any desired time interval while the fresh water was being fed into the feed dish and the cycle repeated as often as desired.
Accordingly, there has long been a need for a drinking bowl arrangement for animals in which fresh water may be selectively automatically provided to the animal's drinking bowl and in which the old water therein and any accumulated debris is simultaneously discharged.
It is another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking.
It is another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking on a cyclical, periodic timed interval.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking which cycle may be automatically or manually controlled.
It is another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking and in which the water in the water bowl is rotated by a forced vortex.
It is another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking and which may be placed in remote locations and sized to accommodate the drinking habits of farm or other animals which may be larger than conventional household pets such as dogs or cats.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking and which is readily adaptable for use in zoos or the like for both animals and birds.
It is another object of the present invention to provide periodic introduction of fresh, clean water into an animal's water bowl simultaneously with the discharge of the waste water therein from which the animal had been drinking and in which the component parts may be quickly and easily separated for more intensive cleaning of the parts.